The Russellville Democrat., 1887-07-13
OUR DUMB FRIENDS.
A Charming Little Sketch by Whittier, {
 Good Ouaker Poet.

A Charming Little Sketch by Whittier, the 1. Good Quaker Poet. It was said of St Francis, of Assissi, that he had attained, through the fer yor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His creation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace with him. The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the golden rule has broader application than it's letter might seem to warrant. The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute creation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest and meanest as sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world there are legends of saints in the depth of whose peace with God and nature all life was sacredly regarded as the price less gift of Heaven, and who were thus enabled to dwell safely amid lions and serpents.
 It is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that stories | and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men and ani- mals are always listened to with in- terest and approval. How pleasant to think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been celebrated in song and romance. Of Vogelweid, the Min nesinger, and his bequest to the birds Of the English Quaker visited wher- ever he went by flocks of birds, who, with cries of joy, alighted on his broad | brimmed hat and his drab coat sleeves. Qf old Samuel Johnson, when hali blind and infirm, groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat. Of Walter Scott and John Brown of Edin- burgh and their dogs. Of our own Thoreau, instinctively recognized by says of him: "His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller records of Butler, the apiologist, that either he had told the bees things or the bees had told him. Snakes coiled around his legs;
  the woodchuck out of his hole by his tail and took foxes under his protection from the hunters.
 In the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems-the sacred book of the Mahab- harata- there is passage of exception al beauty and tenderness, which records the reception of King Yudiauthira at the gate of Paradise. A pilgrim to the heavenly city, the King had travelled over vast spaces, and one by one the loved ones, the companions of his jour- ney, had all fallen and left him alone save his faithful dog, which still fol lowed. He was met by Indra and in- vited to enter the holy city. But the King thinks of his friends who have fallen on the way and declines to go in without them. The god tells him they are all within waiting for him. Joy ful, he is about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog weary and wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter the gate. Indra refuses, and thereupon the King de- clares that to abandon his faithful and dumb friend would be be as great sin as to kill a Brahmin.
 Away with felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful
 Never come veal or woe, will I leave my faith ful dog
 The poor creature, in fear and distress, has
 trusted in my power to save him. Not therefore, for life itself, will l break my plighted word
 In full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and straight way descends, as he supposes, thither. But his virtue and faithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself surrounded by his old friends and in the presence of the gods, who thus honor and reward his humanity and unselfish love.--J. c. Whittter, tn Our Dumb Animals.